Tyco International Ltd. Has agreed to acquire Signature Security, an Australian and New Zealand security firm for $171 million. Tyco said it plans to combine Signature Security's operations with its ADT Security business under the ADT name. Signature Security provides security installation and monitoring services to more than 90,000 customers and has annual revenue of $80 million. Boca Raton -based ADT, part of Tyco's security solutions business, is the world's largest electronic security provider with about 9 million customers around the world and 2010 revenue of $7.7 billion.

Intermedix Corp., a fast-growing Fort Lauderdale company that provides technology services and software for health care and safety industries, has made another acquisition. Intermedix said it bought the medical billings operations of California's T-System to expand in the billings business. The purchase will add offices in Cerritos, Calif., and in Williamsburg, Va., that employ more than 100 people. The price of the deal was not disclosed. The move comes just two months after Intermedix made its first international purchase.

AUCKLAND, New Zealand -- A strong earthquake toppled buildings, cracked bridges and buckled roads today along New Zealand`s northeast coast, injuring many people and trapping others in wreckage and cars. There were no initial reports of deaths in what government seismologists called the strongest earthquake to hit New Zealand in 10 years. The devastating quake, which measured 6.4 on the Richter scale, ripped bridges from foundations, knocked down buildings and twisted railway lines in the Bay of Plenty area of the North Island, some 260 miles northeast of the capital city of Wellington, Civil Defense officials said from Wellington.

A Fort Lauderdale-based company that serves the medical and safety industries with software and other technology-related services has made its first international acquisition in New Zealand. Intermedix Corp., which employs more than 250 people in South Florida and about 2,500 nationwide, said it invested more than $5 million to buy Optima Corp. based in Auckland, New Zealand. Optima makes software that helps emergency response agencies and businesses decide how to best deploy their people and equipment.

The Colour. Rose Tremain. Farrar, Straus, Giroux. $25. 400 pp. The Colour is an entrancing historical fiction on what may seem to be an unpromising subject: the 19th century New Zealand gold rush. In Tremain's deft hands, however, the narrative, moving from the east coast of the South Island to the west, unlike the arduous trek of the impoverished but ever-hopeful gold miners, moves with confidence and grace. New Zealand, named by its indigenous Maori residents "the Land of the Long White Cloud," became a refuge of sorts for Joseph Blackstone; his new wife, Harriet; and his 63-year-old mother, Lillian.

New Zealand's cricketers left the Caribbean last week, having justified their third-ranked world Test rating by beating the sixth-ranked home team 1-0 in a two-Test series. The second Test ended in a tame draw in Antigua, when the visitors, after slipping to a shaky 157-5 before lunch on the final day, rallied to 256-5 before rain ended play and the West Indies' hopes of squaring the series. New Zealand's Scott Styris had a memorable debut, scoring 107 in his first innings, and 69 not out in the second.

A major clash in cricket will take place this weekend in Lauderhill when West Indies takes on New Zealand in two Digicel Twenty20 International matches. The two national teams will play Saturday and Sunday at Central Broward Regional Park Cricket Stadium, a 16,000-seat, $70 million facility built four years ago for such an event. Both matches will start at 3 p.m. New Zealand is ranked No. 4 in the most recent International Cricket Council Twenty20 international rankings, and West Indies is ranked No. 9. "It's immeasurable the excitement that the local community has," said Leslie Johnson, spokesperson for the city of Lauderhill.

Swarming defense propelled New Zealand to a 53-39 win over England on Sunday in the championship game of the World Youth Netball Championships at Broward County Convention Center. The third-seeded Kiwis trailed only once, after England scored the opening basket. From there, New Zealand went on an 11-3 run, and its lead was never threatened. Coach Te Aroha Keenan said her team's plan was to pressure England near its basket and capitalize on the height advantage of goal scorer Jessica Tuki and goal attacker Maria Tutaia.

It took a radical design innovation, Australia`s winged keel, to break the United States` 132-year hold on the America`s Cup in 1983. Now another fleet of foreign challengers is swarming and the boat from New Zealand is being regarded in terms reminiscent of the radical Australia II in the summer of `83. Whether or not the new New Zealand is a breakthrough design, it appears to be something special. In its first test a week ago, the Kiwi boat blew away seven other challengers in an informal tune-up race off San Diego, winning by three minutes in very light wind.

New Zealand's cricketers, already assured of at least tying the two-Test series with the West Indies, are trying to record their first series win in the Caribbean. Sent in to bat, New Zealand reached 61 before losing the first wicket, Lou Vincent bowled by Pedro Collins for 24. Captain Stephen Fleming was next to go, after the Windies went in to lunch at 77-1. He was caught at slip by Brian Lara off Collins for 6 with the score on 81, and Chris Harris was caught at the wicket for nought one run later.

FORT LAUDERDALE — North American Soccer League Commissioner Bill Peterson stopped by the Fort Lauderdale Strikers' practice facility at Lockhart Stadium on Friday. It was Peterson's fifth stop on his tour of all 10 NASL teams prior to the start of the season on April 12. He met with the Strikers team in the morning and fielded questions by players. Peterson felt good about the progression of the club "I think there has been a real focus and push and a lot of work by Traffic this last offseason in a couple of areas.

Mark Gilbert, a prominent Democratic Party fundraiser from Boca Raton, may be on his way to New Zealand and Samoa. His nomination to be the U.S. ambassador to New Zealand and Samoa is once again on its way to the U.S. Senate, which gives a thumbs up or thumbs down to President Barack Obama's selection. The White House said last year Gilbert was the pick. But along with some 200 other nominations, it was stalled as Republicans ground the approval process to a halt in the Senate. On Monday evening, the White House said the nomination was formally sent again to the Senate with a long list of others.

By Willa Paskin, Slate Slate NEW YORK - It's common wisdom in the entertainment business that women will happily consume and enjoy fictions about both men and women, but that most men only enjoy fictions about other men. Having recently finished watching and loving Netflix's new series "Orange Is the New Black," about life inside a minimum security women's prison, it occurred to me that this may be the first time in my memory that TV has...

It seems fitness runs in the Wittenberns family. Courtney Wittenberns, daughter of the founder of Lady of America fitness centers, has opened her own women-only gym in Pompano Beach: Oxygen Fitness for Her. Her father, Roger Wittenberns, who worked in the industry for decades and built a multi-million-dollar company, said he'll aid her as a consultant and mentor. "If … I see her making a left, and I know there's bad stuff out there, I can tell her 'no, make a right,' because I've been there," the Fort Lauderdale resident said.

Amphibious vehicles have always been a trade-off, either fast on land and painfully slow in the water or fast in the water and agonizingly slow on land. Not anymore, now that the Quadski is here. The Quadski offers the best of an all-terrain vehicle and a personal watercraft, achieving speeds up to 45 mph on land and in the water. Its design, performance and handling make the Quadski a pleasure to drive, as I discovered earlier this week. Nothing about this vehicle is a compromise, which is why it took more than 15 years and $200 million for its technology to be perfected.

MANUREWA, New Zealand -- When my sister dropped a fledgling medical career to run off and become a farmer`s wife on the other side of the world, we were stunned. She was trading a hospital internship outside the Big Apple, where she`d landed after medical school, for life on a farm in New Zealand. That was six years ago. None of us knew much about New Zealand at the time, much less had been there. Since then, my parents have visited several times, and after each trip they`ve returned wide-eyed and gushing over its beauty and charm.

SECRETARY of State George P. Shultz put the issue succinctly: "I`d hate to see the New Zealand (nuclear) policy spread," he said, "because it would basically cripple the ability of the United States and our allies to defend the values that we and New Zealand and others share." Those values include a love of freedom and an adherence to the democratic process. Whether New Zealand likes it or not, at this point in human history, nuclear weapons and nuclear powered vessels, which New Zealand has barred from its ports, are essential to the defense of freedom.

A major clash in cricket will take place this weekend in Lauderhill when West Indies takes on New Zealand in two Digicel Twenty20 International matches. The two national teams will play Saturday and Sunday at Central Broward Regional Park Cricket Stadium, a 16,000-seat, $70 million facility built four years ago for such an event. Both matches will start at 3 p.m. New Zealand is ranked No. 4 in the most recent International Cricket Council Twenty20 international rankings, and West Indies is ranked No. 9. "It's immeasurable the excitement that the local community has," said Leslie Johnson, spokesperson for the city of Lauderhill.

The Volvo Ocean Race is headed to Miami, and it looks like it'll be a lot easier for sailing fans to get to the race village at Bicentennial Park than for the sailboats competing in the around-the-world regatta. Five of the Volvo's six boats departed Itajai, Brazil, on April 22. The boats were slated to arrive in Miami on May 6, but at their current pace in the light winds they've encountered, they wouldn't show up until May 8. The race, which is held every four years, began Nov. 5, 2011 with the first leg from Alicante, Spain, to Cape Town, South Africa.